In recent years, jet-propulsion personal watercraft have been widely used in leisure, sport, rescue activities, and the like. Personal watercraft are equipped with a water jet pump that pressurizes and accelerates water sucked from a water intake generally provided on a hull bottom surface and ejects it rearward from an outlet port. As the resulting reaction, the personal watercraft is propelled forward.
There are stand-up type personal watercraft and straddle-type personal watercraft. The stand-up type personal watercraft includes a concave portion having a flat bottom portion called a standing deck at a rear portion of a deck. Standing on the standing deck, a rider grips a steering handle located forward on the watercraft, to steer the watercraft. An engine room is formed in an interior of a body of the watercraft and is located forward of the standing deck. The straddle-type personal watercraft is equipped with a seat that extends from a substantially middle portion to a rear portion over the deck and is configured to be straddle by the rider. Straddling the seat, the rider grips and steers the steering handle located forward on the watercraft. Typically, the engine room is formed in an interior of the body to be located below the seat. In general, several persons can ride on a straddle-type personal watercraft. As used herein, “forward” is the traveling direction of the watercraft, and “rearward” is the opposite direction.
The above constructed personal watercraft has a battery to start an engine and to supply electric power to indicators such as meters or gauges. In the stand-up type personal watercraft, the battery is accommodated in the interior of the engine room, whereas in straddle-type personal watercraft of a relatively large size, the battery is accommodated in the interior of the engine room, a region rearward of the seat, or the interior of a convex wall portion provided on right and left sides of the deck.
However, the engine room of the personal watercraft has a narrow space. The battery must be positioned not to interfere with the engine, an exhaust pipe, a propeller shaft, etc., and cannot thus be placed flexibly. To charge or maintain the battery, an operator must open an engine hood to take out the battery through an opening above the engine room or must bend the operator's upper body down into the engine room through the opening.
The assignee of the subject application filed a patent application for a personal watercraft that has an engine room formed at a front portion of a body including a hull and a deck and is provided with a battery accommodating space outside the engine room (see e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2003-200882).
In recent years, there has been a need for a personal watercraft having features of both the stand-up type personal watercraft and the straddle-type personal watercraft. Such a personal watercraft is intended for one rider's use and is configured to be equipped with a seat behind an engine room and to be steered by a rider in a standing position.
However, it is difficult to design such a personal watercraft so that the battery is accommodated into the engine room where the operator can easily maintain the battery. Therefore, it becomes necessary to equip the battery at a suitable location outside the engine room.
However, in the straddle-type personal watercraft intended for one rider's use, because of its small size, it is difficult to place the battery into a battery accommodating space outside the engine room as described in the above Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication 2003-200882.